Q. Why does the Mississippi River flow south?
Submitted by Eryn Bain, 7th grade,
Cherokee Middle School
A. A river’s path is primarily determined by the shape of the land, says Jim Knox, a UW-Madison geography professor who studies rivers.
South Korean officials trying to rebuild stem-cell research in their country after a scandal involving a top scientist are turning to top U.S. researchers for guidance.
WASHINGTON – Science fiction writers have suggested a future Earth populated by a blend of all races into a common human form. In real life, the reverse seems to be happening. People are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, with residents of various continents becoming increasingly different from one another, researchers say.
“Our species is not static,” Harpending added in a telephone interview.
South Korean officials trying to rebuild stem cell research in their country after a scandal involving a top scientist are turning to leading U.S. researchers for guidance.
A delegation of South Korean scientists and government officials spent two days at the National Stem Cell Bank here to learn best practices in the growth and distribution of stem cells.
A study led by a UW-Madison anthropologist has found that human evolutionary change, driven by huge population growth and cultural shifts, has moved much faster in the past 40,000 years than formerly believed, and even faster in the last 10,000 years.
The findings by a team led by University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks are making headlines around the world. They counter a common theory that human evolution slowed to a crawl in modern humans, who had conquered nature, were living longer and had an easier life.
Quoted: anthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison.
NATURE’S race to create the perfect person has shifted into top gear, with humans evolving 100 times faster than at any time since the rise of man some 6 million years ago.
That is the finding of researchers who have sifted through data collected by the international effort to map our genetic blueprint.
The pace of human evolution in the past 5000 years was “immense â?¦ something nobody expected”, John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist, said yesterday.
Modern medicine and social safety nets haven’t slowed human evolution; instead, thanks to changes in diet, climate and lifestyle, evolution appears to be speeding up, and it’s happening in different ways in different groups of people.
So said a team of U.S. anthropologists earlier this week. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, received widespread press coverage — some of it responsible, and some less so.
We can all agree that Wisconsin is a great place to live, work and raise a family. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t be here.
We would also agree Wisconsin and Minnesota have many similarities. Both states have a similar climate, and roughly the same population. The residents of both states also have a strong Midwestern work ethic.
But Minnesota outperforms Wisconsin in a few key areas.
Third Wave Technologies, 502 S. Rosa Road, has secured a five-year, $25 million line of credit with Deerfield Management, a health-care investment fund based in New York.
By tracking the footprints of evolution along the human genome, a team of researchers on Monday reported for the first time that the pace of evolution is quickening with the passing generations.
Lead author is John Hawks, Depts. of Anthropology and Zoology
Thirteen nano-level university laboratories across the country are hiring themselves out to businesses eager to make their mark in the millennium of the minuscule. The intimidatingly named National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, begun in 2004, is funded in part with $14 million a year from the National Science Foundation.
Participating business owners say the network allows them to do much more research than they would have without access to its resources. That research, to which the businesses retain all rights, will foster better products and industrial processes that will bolster the national economy, they say.
….Respect for his many accomplishments, as well as a recognition of his missteps, should guide members of the UW Board of Regents as they seek a successor….
Wiley’s achievements are significant. Under his leadership, the university has expanded its role as a center of research and scientific advancement that has few public or private rivals.
….For the UW to maintain its greatness, the school must be more closely linked to Madison and Wisconsin. With the straining of that relationship, the commitment of the state to providing the public funding that is needed to keep the UW strong and independent has slackened.
John Wiley has been an able administrator in many significant senses. But the next chancellor must take a broader view of the UW’s mission and its need to reconnect with Wisconsin.
â??I thought, we canâ??t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.â?
After years of searching, and at times almost giving up in despair, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka may have found that alternative. Last month, his was one of two groups of researchers that independently announced they had successfully turned adult skin cells into the equivalent of human embryonic stem cells without using an actual embryo. The other group was led by James A. Thomson at the University of Wisconsin, one of the first scientists to isolate human embryonic stem cells.
The world may feel more and more like a global village, but its residents are increasingly genetically diverse thanks to the rapidly accelerating pace of human evolution, a study said Monday. John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, collaborated on the study
Looking back at seven sometimes stormy years in the top post at UW-Madison, Chancellor John Wiley said that the best parts of the experience — and the worst — involved personnel matters.
The good part was finding highly qualified people for key jobs. “We have the best collection of deans this campus has ever had,” Wiley said during a press conference Friday at the Chazen Museum of Art, where he announced that he would leave the chancellor’s post in September 2008.
But the worst parts of the personnel process were not the highly publicized incidents in which felons were found to be working at the university, or the criticism of his placing Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows on a lengthy sick leave after allegations of sexual harassment were made against Barrows.
In the fall of 1984, Robert Enright sat at his desk behind a stack of books, lost in uneasy thought. Why am I doing what I’m doing?
He had spent almost a decade studying how children view justice, publishing dozens of papers. The subject was to be his life’s work. Now, on sabbatical from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he was plowing through the books, the fruits of a century of progress in his field.
Jim Bockheim, a UW-Madison soil scientist, has spent a lot of time in Antarctica. If you need proof of that, just check a map of this remote land at the bottom of the world.
Look for Mount Bockheim.
John Wiley was a scientist before he became a college administrator. And in the years after his departure from the UW-Madison chancellor ‘s job, the university ‘s reputation throughout the world as a leading research institution is likely to become his most lasting legacy, researchers and administrators said.
Mentions that laboratories at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are getting rolling on scientific research to more easily break down the sugars in cornstalks and other plants. Earlier this year, UW received a $125 million award to establish its first federal research center in nearly a century, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
University of Wisconsin researchers have successfully used human embryonic stem cells to diagnose diseases and predict the effects of certain drugs in the human body.
Sugar may now be OK to put in your gas tank.
In a Gilson Discovery evening seminar Thursday, president and CEO of Virent Energy Systems Eric Apfelbach presented current developments in converting biomass, including sugarcane, into hydrocarbon fuels, providing renewable energy as a replacement for oil products.
Last month, after UW-Madison and Kyoto University researchers announced a new technique that turns skin cells into cells that look and function like embryonic stem cells, the world seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. At last, the end to the nearly decade-long stem cell war was in sight. Or, so it seemed.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) â?? The National Stem Cell Bank here might soon get bigger.
The bank already houses and distributes most of the stem cells available for federally funded research, and its leaders hope to add cells created with a new technique that does not involve the destruction of embryos.
The National Institutes of Health created the bank in Madison in 2005 as the central repository for federally approved embryonic stem cells. It is operated by the WiCell Research Institute, a nonprofit connected to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For the first time, scientists have used human embryonic stem cells to predict the toxic effects of drugs and provide chemical clues to diagnosing disease.
Writing this week in the journal Stem Cells and Development, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison biologist Gabriela Cezar reports the use of all-purpose stem cells to elicit and identify the telltale chemical signals secreted by the cells when exposed to a drug known to cause autism.
A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all. Being able to reprogram skin cells into multipurpose stem cells without harming embryos launches an exciting new line of research. It’s important to remember, though, that we’re at square one, uncertain at this early stage whether souped-up skin cells hold the same promise as their embryonic cousins do.
Far from vindicating the current U.S. policy of withholding federal funds from many of those working to develop potentially lifesaving embryonic stem cells, recent papers in the journals Science and Cell described a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions. In fact, work by both the U.S. and Japanese teams that reprogrammed skin cells depended entirely on previous embryonic stem cell research.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation selected a new foundation director of investments, the foundation announced Wednesday.
There was a lot of discussion last month about a scientific breakthrough that made stem cell research possible without running afoul of the Bush Administrationâ??s restrictions on destroying embryos. Bizarrely, admirers of President Bush claimed that he deserved credit for stimulating the latest advance.
That fanciful claim has now been effectively skewered by the American scientist who led one of the teams that accomplished the breakthrough.
Q. Is it true that the death rate increases around the holidays?
A. Christmas Day, Dec. 26 and New Year’s Day are the deadliest days of the year, says Patrick Remington, professor of population health sciences at UW-Madison. Nationwide, the mortality rate is about 5 percent higher on these days.
Itâ??s no secret that thereâ??s an obesity epidemic going on. Many researchers blame highly processed carbohydrates, such as high-fructose corn syrup and white flour. Now scientists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison have started to tease out the role of the liver in converting those calorie-rich foods into fat. The researchers isolated a gene in the liver called SCD-1. The gene codes for an enzyme that synthesizes fatty acids. Mice with the normal gene were fed a diet high in processed carbs. The mice converted those carbs into fat and stored that fat in the body. But mice that lacked that SCD-1 gene just burned all those carb calories. And stayed skinny.
This finding reveals that the liver determines whether or not eating refined carbohydrates will lead to fat gain. The researchers say this system is a good example of a direct diet-gene interaction. But they also say that a drug to turn off that fat-making liver gene wouldnâ??t be a good idea. Without that gene, the mice could no longer make glucose. They ended up hypoglycemicâ??suffering from low blood sugar. So the solution is, sadly, what you already knew: eat fewer processed carbohydrates.
A national watchdog group that opposes animal research accused the Wisconsin Primate Research Center of â??wasting tens of millions in federal tax grantsâ? Tuesday.
Switching off one key gene in the liver can virtually halt the conversion of carbohydrates into body fat, a U.S. study suggests.
While the SCD-1 gene exists in every cell in the body, the University of Wisconsin research says its specific actions in the liver are essential for the production of body fat from high carbohydrate intakes â?? a primary source of the obesity epidemic sweeping the globe.
“I would say it is a switch-off gene,” says James Ntambi, a biochemist at the Madison school and the lead author of the study in mice.
Johns Hopkins University spent more on science, engineering and medical research in 2006 than any other U.S. academic institution, according to rankings released yesterday by the National Science Foundation.
Hopkins spent nearly $1.5 billion on research last year – nearly twice much as the runner-up, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which spent $830 million.
To protect against rabies, dogs are given shots every one to three years, depending on such factors as their age and the type of vaccine used.
But a Maine woman who is concerned that too-frequent rabies vaccinations are exposing pets to health risks has helped raise money for a study to look at whether dogs actually need far fewer shots.
The study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine will examine whether rabies vaccinations immunize dogs to that fatal disease for as long as five to seven years.
Ever since last weekâ??s monumental breakthrough by UW-Madisonâ??s own researcher Dr. James Thomson, which turned human skin cells into stem cells without using a human embryo, people have misunderstood its significance.
In the wake of the stunning announcement by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Thomson that he and his team had succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to create new stem cell lines, many people have begun to speculate on the effect that this breakthrough will have on the stem cell debate.
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As the parent of a child with diabetes, it is my hope that Thomson’s breakthrough will allow our nation to move forward with a national policy that increases public funding of all forms of stem cell research. I would like to believe that we will see an end to the contentious debate over this research that has caused years of delay and that too often has left researchers without adequate resources.
I am not optimistic, however.
Just as a rotten apple can spoil the bunch, so can a rotten potato. So UW-Madison researchers have developed a test that may for the first time allow growers to prevent widespread crop damage.
Using a technique called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, Zahi Atallah, associate researcher in the department of plant pathology, developed a test that can detect as few as one spore of a number of fungal diseases that can destroy potatoes. A spore is the early stage of fungi.
Every day, countless people walk along the sidewalk in front of the Wisconsin Historical Society on the UW-Madison campus. Most are probably completely unaware of the treasures that lie just below their feet.
More than 15,000 film reels from the Golden Age of Hollywood, stored in identical flat, gray metal canisters, are stacked in row upon row of non-descript shelving in the vast temperature- and humidity-controlled vault underneath the sidewalk.
Q. Why does wood float?
Dylan Jack
Sixth grade
Cherokee Middle School
A. The simple answer is that wood is less dense than water, says UW-Madison wood products professor Scott Bowe.
A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all. Being able to reprogram skin cells into multipurpose stem cells without harming embryos launches an exciting new line of research. It’s important to remember, though, that we’re at square one, uncertain at this early stage whether souped-up skin cells hold the same promise as their embryonic cousins do.
Far from vindicating the current U.S. policy of withholding federal funds from many of those working to develop potentially lifesaving embryonic stem cells, recent papers in the journals Science and Cell described a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions. In fact, work by both the U.S. and Japanese teams that reprogrammed skin cells depended entirely on previous embryonic stem cell research.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers who figured out how to make valued embryonic stem cells out of ordinary skin cells said on Friday they had found a way to cut one cancer-causing ingredient out of the mix.
But it came at a price — the method may be safer, but it is also less efficient.
Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan said the findings, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, demonstrate that the stem cell breakthrough may have been exciting, but is nowhere near ready to be used in humans.
Patenting officials at the University of Wisconsin at Madison are excited about announcements that new techniques had been found to generate versatile stem cells without destroying human embryos, even though they acknowledge the discovery could eventually undermine the value of the stem-cell patents and licenses that Wisconsin holds.
“Hey, that’s what science is about,” said Carl E. Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
MADISON â?? Scientists and others close to Wisconsin’s research sector often use the term “public-private partnership” to describe a Nirvana of converging interests: the power of a public research university paired with the flexibility and rapid response of private collaborators.
But what does such a partnership actually look like? The recent announcement that a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has produced clinical-quality human stem cells from skin cells offers a world-class example.
Nearby on the continent, an international team of neutrino researchers is hard at work on IceCube, a massive “crystal ball” of thousands of detectors dangled two kilometers deep within the ultrapure ice sheet. In the next 10 years, the scientists hope to capture a million of the elusive subatomic particles as they bombard Earth at energies higher than those produced in the laboratory, explained Francis Halzen, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin.
Madison, Wis. – Scientists and others close to Wisconsin’s research sector often use the term â??public-private partnershipâ? to describe a Nirvana of converging interests: the power of a public research university paired with the flexibility and rapid response of private collaborators.
But what does such a partnership actually look like? Last week’s announcement that a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have produced clinical-quality human stem cells from skin cells offers a world-class example.
The convergence of science and ethics is beautiful to behold. The beauty is significantly enhanced when science becomes not only more ethical, but more practical in application with great potential for human benefit. That is what appears to be happening with the recent disclosure that two separate teams of scientists have discovered a means to turn ordinary human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells, without destroying living human embryos to do so.
The long-simmering embryonic stem cell debate may become moot one day due to a breakthrough that reprograms human skin cells with similar results.
Research teams at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Kyoto University in Japan reported landmark results last week.
A scientific discovery without the controversy â?? what could be better news?
Forget about crossword puzzles, sudoku, or computer “brain exercise” programs.
If you really want to fend off Alzheimer’s disease as you get older, take up jogging or tennis or bowling. OK, maybe not bowling. But just taking a long, brisk walk three or four times a week will help keep you mentally sharp.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of neuroscience Ron Kalil
A huge corn harvest in Wisconsin yielded record corn prices for state farmers this year. That’s good news for the farm sector, as Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen noted in a 2007 Thanksgiving message disseminated around the state. But other reports that also arrived this autumn question the long-term environmental impact of increased corn cropping across the Midwest. Both messages are worth pondering as winter gives the fields a rest.
….The University of Wisconsin this year received a record $125 million grant to build a major cellulosic ethanol research facility. Cellulosic ethanol offers promise for better energy yields and more environmental compatibility. Crops like switchgrass and other native grasses, trees and other woody plants don’t hammer the soil and water as hard as corn or soybeans, another crop often grown for energy.
The debate surrounding embryonic stem cell research began in the late 1990s when University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson first isolated the human stem cell. In the initial process, stem cells â?? some of which have potential to become any kind of cell in the human body and thus hold great potential for curing diseases such as Alzheimerâ??s and Parkinsonâ??s â?? were extracted from a human embryo, destroying it in the process.
Last week, University of Wisconsin professor James Thomson and Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka discovered a method of isolating stem cells without the use, or destruction, of human embryos.
Dear Editor:
….With the recent discovery by Dr. James Thomson at UW regarding reprogrammed human skin cells acting like embryonic stem cells, the state has at least one more opportunity to take the lead in this innovative industry. Government leaders should invest in stem cell research institutes throughout the state, creating new biotechnology hubs. If this is accomplished, new jobs would be created, and all those students who think about leaving Wisconsin for better opportunities would think twice before exiting.
Judd Aiken was pretty sure he knew what happens when prions, the misshapen proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer, bind to soil.
The prions must become less infectious, he figured. But an experiment he conducted found the opposite — big time: Soil-bound prions were 700 times more infectious than prions alone.
If stem cell researchers were oil prospectors, it could be said that they struck a gusher last week. But to realize the potential boundless riches they now must figure out how to build refineries, pipelines and gas stations.
Biologists were electrified on Tuesday, when scientists in Japan and Wisconsin reported that they could turn human skin cells into cells that behave like embryonic stem cells, able to grow indefinitely and to potentially turn into any type of tissue in the body.
A new breakthrough in stem cell research engineered by UW-Madison researchers is not only exciting news for scientists and patients, but has the potential to quell religious and political debates that have plagued the technology.
UW-Madison researchers announced Tues. Nov. 20, the discovery of a new technique that reprograms skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cellsâ??cells scientists believe could be used to replace body tissues damaged by disease and trauma.
Anti-abortion groups in the state support the recent stem cell breakthrough at UW-Madison, although disagreements may intensify on other aspects of the research.
Researchers at UW-Madison announced early last week a technique that can make human skin cells revert to a state similar to embryonic stem cells. Anti-abortion groups Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin oppose embryonic stem cell research and government funding for it.
A group of University of Wisconsin researchers announced last week they have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells into cells indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.
An ambitious international project to dig deeper into the Earth’s surface than ever before has made a good start with scientists saying they have gained clues about how large earthquakes and tsunami occur.
The experiment, using the Japanese government’s 57,500-tonne, 60-billion-yen ($550-million) deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu, is probing a trench in waters off the Pacific coast of Japan where two tectonic plates meet.
A team of 16 scientists from six countries have been seeking clues about how seismic activity can shake the planet’s foundations
Advances published last week in the area of stem cell research hold great promise, particularly for those who seek to realize the potential of embryonic stem cells.
The process described in studies published in the journals Science and Cell could revolutionize the way in which such work is pursued in the future.
